ielts listening test 8

ACADEMIC LISTENING PRACTICE TEST 8

SECTION 1 Questions 1 - 10

Questions 1 - 5

Complete the Travel agents notes below.

Write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS OR A NUMBER for each answer.

SUN TOURS TRAVEL AGENTS

Customers Name Mr. George Collins

Other travellers Mrs. Jane Collins (+ ages of children) (1) __________ 7 years old Jennifer (2) __________

Require 4 star quality hotel + breakfast; safe, warm, quietish, beach; pref. pool; lots of res-taurants near hotel; no (3) __________ needed

Dates of Holiday Friday July 8th TO (4) Sunday __________

Pref. Flight Time Less than (5) __________

Example Answer

Number of people 4

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PRACTICE TEST 8

Academic Test 8; Page 1

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Possible Holiday Ideas

Top End Prices Italy and France Bottom End Prices (6) __________, Greece and Turkey (Turkey + Cyprus too far)

Crete Hotel Tropicana

* 1 mile safe walk on (7) __________ to beach. * Nice pool; only a few beach bars and restaurants. * Really quiet; not near other tourist destinations.

Palm Hotel

* 2 miles from beach but has (8) __________ service. * Hotel in quite a busy tourist town: lots of bars, restaurants and discos.

Rhodes Ocean Hotel

* Right on beach: less than (9) __________ from the rooms. * 4 star hotel quite far from main town; eat in hotel; good meals.

Hotel Spiros

* (10) __________ hotel quite close to beach (5/10 mins walk) in small village with small swimming pool. * A few restaurants in small, quiet village; not much to do.

Questions 6 - 10

Complete Georges notes below.

Write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each answer.

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Questions 11 - 15

Complete the food options information sheet below.


Solaris Hotel and Holiday Village - Food Options

Meal Times

Breakfast: 6.30am and 9.30am every day (Only in Harvest restaurant; English, American and (11) _________________ breakfasts on offer

Lunch 12.00 noon to 2.30pm

Dinner 7.00pm to 10.30pm

Menus same for lunch + dinner; see (12) _________________ for specials

Food Styles

The Harvest Restaurant Traditional English + popular UK foreign dishes (eg: curry and spaghetti)

The Dene Restaurant (13) _________________

The Mekong Restaurant Far Eastern Cuisine

Payment

* All restaurants free; (14) _________________ needed for some specials* All soft drinks free; pay for alcoholic drinks* Pay any bill at end of meals or put on main bill - pay at end of holiday

Extras

* Bar menu available in (15) _________________ for pub food

* Fast Food available until 2.30am at take away

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Solaris Hotel and Holiday Village - Activities

Beaches: main beach adult beach (17s or over)

(16) _________________ on duty from 9.00am to 6.00pm on main beach (none on adult beach)

* Decked area with sun loungers in front of Harvest Restaurant with our 25 metre swimming pool* Steps from pool area to beach - wash feet in foot pool to remove sand* (17) _________________ on beach + in pool area.

Sports

8 tennis courts + 3 squash courtsFully equipped gym (No under 18s)6 full sized snooker tables + 5 pool tables in games room adjoining the bar.(only charge for hiring any equipment)

Water Sports

water skiing + jet skis available (extra charge)snorkelling, inflatables and pedallos (free)

(details from (18) _________________)

Library & Cinemas

Library contains books, magazines + newspapers. See (19) _________________ for terms + conditions

2 cinemas show 3 different films each every day. Shows at 2.00pm, 5.30pm + 8.30pm (First 2 shows always have a film for kids) (20) ________________ not allowed to attend 8.30 shows

Questions 16 - 20

Complete the activities information sheet below.


ieltshelpnow.comAcademic Test 8; Page 4


Rank Language No. of Speakers

1 Mandarin Chinese 836 million

2 (21) __________ 333 million

3 Spanish 332 million

4 English (22) __________

Questions 21 - 26

Complete the three tables below.



Worlds Most Spoken LanguagesBy Number of Individual Speakers

Rank Language No. of Countries

1 English 115

2 French 35

3 (23) __________ 24

4 Spanish (24) __________

Worlds Most Spoken LanguagesBy Number of User Countries

1 Number of primary speakers

2 Number of (25) __________

3 Number and population of countries where languages are used

4 Number of major fields using the language internationally

5 (26) __________ of countries using the language

6 Socio-literary prestige of the language

Worlds Most Influential Languages - 6 weighing factors



Questions 27 - 30

Complete the notes below of the second half of Jamie and Rebeccas presentation.


Jamie and Rebeccas Presentation

Large countries currently shifting world economic balance of power:

China Russia India (27) _______________

Reasons for shift size of the populations cheap labour prices of (28) _______________

* Big growing demand for people knowing languages of above countries + for teachers and English language training

* China could be less important than possibly India or (29) _______________ due to their population increase. English will probably remain important though

* Number of spoken languages between approx. (30) _______________. Hardly any of these studied by non native speakers

* English taught in most countries with structured education program. This trend is getting stronger.

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Questions 31 - 35

Complete the sentences below.

Write NO MORE THAN 3 WORDS for each answer.

31 Mad cow disease attacks the ______________ of the affected cows brains.

32 BSE is thought to be caused by infectious forms of ______________ known as prions.

33 Abnormal prions in BSE infected cattle are found in the small intestines, ______________ and the central nervous tissues.

34 Humans can take in the abnormal prions when they eat infected beef as the prions are resistant to the usual _______________ such as heat.

35 The one American case of CJD was a woman who caught it in _______________ before going to the US.

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Questions 36 - 40

Complete the summary below of the second half of the humanities lecture on BSE.


CJD causes gradual loss of mental function and movement due to brain damage

from abnormal prions or it can be possibly (36) _______________. CJD usually

affects younger people (between ages 20 to 70) usually showing symptoms in

patients (37) _______________. Symptoms include personality changes and

problems with (38) _______________. Once symptoms appear, the disorder

progresses quickly to disability and death.

The exact causes of BSE are unknown but the first UK cases have indicated that

it could come from a prion disease in (39) _______________ called scrapie that

was fed to cattle. Dead cattle with scrapie were then fed to (40) _______________

making them cannibals. So, we are in turn infected by the disease that we created

when we eat infected beef.

SUMMARY



Section 1. You will hear a conversation between a travel agent and a customer discussing a holiday.

First you have some time to look at questions 1 5.

(20 second gap)

You will see that there is an example. This time only, the conversation relating to this will be played first.

Travel Agent (TA): Good morning sir. Can I help you?

Customer: Yes. Im thinking of going away on holiday but Im not sure where to go.

TA: Well sir. We have a range of destinations that we offer. Are you going alone sir or with a friend?

Cust: With my family actually.

TA: So, how many people is that sir?

Cust: My wife and I and my young son and daughter. So, four.

So, 4 is the correct answer.

Now we begin. You should answer the questions as you listen, as the recording is not played twice. Listen carefully to the conversation and answer questions 1 to 5.

Travel Agent (TA): Good morning sir. Can I help you?

Customer: Yes. Im thinking of going away on holiday but Im not sure where to go.

TA: Well sir. We have a range of destinations that we offer. Are you going alone sir or with a friend?

Cust: With my family actually.

TA: So, how many people is that sir?

Cust: My wife and I and my young son and daughter. So, four.

TA: Fine. Now with a young family can I assume that youd like to go somewhere warm?


Cust: Oh yes. A beach holiday. Thats what we are looking for.

TA: Right, Ill just take some personal details sir. First of all, whats your name?

Cust: George Collins.

TA: Collins? Is that C-O-L-L-I-N-S?

Cust: Yes, thats right.

TA: Thank you. And what about your wife and children?

Cust: My wifes name is Jane, my boys name is Mike and my little girl is Jennifer.

TA: How old are the children?

Cust: Mikes 7 and Jennifers 4.

TA: Ah, theyre quite small then.

Cust: Oh yes, We just need a safe, little place. A warm climate, a quietish, safe beach, a pool preferably and lots of small restaurants and bars near the hotel.

TA: Would you want any crche facilities in the hotel so you and your wife can get away when you want?

Cust: No. I work quite hard and I dont see the kids as often as I want at home so Im looking forward to spending all my time with them.

TA: And what eating arrangements do you want?

Cust: Just half board please. Well have breakfast at the hotel but well eat lunch and dinner at a beach caf. Wed want about 4 star quality for the hotel by the way.

TA: Right. And what time in the summer are you thinking of taking the holiday?

Cust: I finish work on Friday night on July 8th and Im off for two weeks. So, Ill need to be back at work on the Monday 25th. Ill need to finish the holiday then on the 24th.

TA: And how long would you want to spend travelling?

Cust: Oh, as little as possible of course with the little ones. Not more than a couple of hours in the car to get to an airport and then not more that 4 hours on a plane.

TA: Thats fine. You can get to all of the nice resorts on the Mediterranean easily in less than 4 hours. Right then. Lets show you some brochures.

Before the conversation continues, you have some time to look at questions 6 to 10.


(20 second gap)

Now listen carefully and answer questions 6 to 10.

TA: As I said sir, most Mediterranean destinations are easily within your preferred flight time. You can choose really between Spain, France, Italy, the old Yugoslavia, Greece or Turkey as well as the Mediterranean islands.

Cust: Wow, what a great choice. What are the different costs involved?

TA: With you wanting a 4 star hotel and pool some countries will be definitely cheaper than others. Price wise, Italy and France will be at the top end, Spain, Greece and Turkey will be at the lower end.

Cust: Greece and Turkey sound great actually. Ive always wanted to go there and Ive seen some beautiful photos.

TA: I think that Greece would suit you better as the flight to Turkey is actually quite long. Youre getting towards 5 hours there.

Cust: OK, well Greece is fine.

TA: Of course with Greece you have the choice between the islands and the mainland. Its the islands that are famous of course but youll have to get there by boat or take a short connecting flight. Some of the bigger islands are served directly though from UK airports.

Cust: Well, one of the larger islands sounds best then. What about Cyprus? Ive heard that a lot of British people go there.

TA: Yes, its very popular. The trouble for you with Cyprus though is that its down in the eastern Mediterranean near Turkey and the flight is quite long to get there. I was thinking more of Rhodes and Crete.

Cust: Lets have a look at those 2 then.

TA: Here are some brochures. This is the Hotel Tropicana and this is the Palm Hotel. Both of them are in Crete. In Rhodes we have the Ocean Hotel and Hotel Spiros.

Cust: Can you tell me a bit about them?

TA: Of course. The Hotel Tropicana is about 1 mile from the beach and its a safe walk along a path through some fields to get there. They have a nice pool which you can see in the photo. There are only a few beach bars and restaurants though. Its really quiet, away from all the bustle of other tourist destinations. The Palm Hotel is further from the beach, about 2 miles, but it has a minibus service that goes to and from the beach all day. The hotel itself is in quite a busy tourist town that has lots of bars, restaurants and discos. Its great for going out.

Cust: I dont know if either of those suits us. We dont want noisy and we dont want a long way to


the beach.

TA: Lets have a look at the Rhodes hotels then. The Ocean Hotel is right on the beach. Its less than 5 minutes usually to get to the beach area from the rooms. The hotel is quite a long way from the main town and people usually take all their meals in the hotel. The hotel is 4 star though and we know the food is quite good as weve been told so by previous holidaymakers. Hotel Spiros is a family run hotel also quite close to the beach about 5 or 10 minutes walk. Its in a small village and has a small swimming pool as well. There are a few restaurants scattered around the village but again, its not a big tourist village so theres not much to do.

Cust: To be honest, both of those sound fine. We dont want a night life as we wont be able to leave the kids. Something close to the beach, somewhere to eat and sit in the evening is all we need. Ive made some notes. Let me take the brochure with the details of these two hotels and Ill take them back and show my wife and see what she thinks. They both seem just what we want though.

TA: OK sir. Come in again when youve decided or if you want to see some other places.

Cust: I will. Thanks very much then. Goodbye.

TA: Goodbye.

That is the end of section 1. You will now have half a minute to check your answers.

(30 second gap)

Now turn to section 2.

Section 2. You will hear a man giving an orientation talk to new holidaymakers at the Solaris Hotel and Holiday Village. First you have some time to look at questions 11 to 15.

(20 second gap)

Now listen carefully to the orientation talk and answer questions 11 to 15.

Good morning everyone and welcome to your first morning here at the Solaris Hotel and Holiday Village. This little orientation talk this morning will just give you an idea of what to find and expect around the grounds.

Lets begin by looking at meals. We have three different restaurants and you are at liberty to eat at any of them. They are the Harvest Restaurant, the Dene Restaurant and the Mekong Restaurant. Lets begin with breakfast. Breakfast is only served in the Harvest Restaurant. The other two restaurants are only open for lunch and dinner. Breakfast is served between 6.30am and 9.30am 7 days a week. There are English, American and continental style breakfasts on offer.

For lunch and dinner all the restaurants have the same opening hours to make things easier for you. Lunch is served from 12.00 noon to 2.30pm and dinner is served from 7.00pm to 10.30pm. The menus are the same for lunch and dinner though look at the blackboards displayed in the restaurants for any specials that they are serving for any particular meal. The style of food


is different in each of the restaurants. The Harvest serves traditional English food though with plenty of the foreign dishes which are popular in the UK such as curry and spaghetti. The Dene specialises in fish and seafood and the Mekong offers you a selection of dishes from the Far East; not just from Vietnam as the name suggests but Chinese, Thai, Malay and others.

You dont have to pay in any of the restaurants unless an extra supplement is needed for some of the specials. All soft drinks are also free though we charge for alcoholic drinks. You can choose to pay any bill that you may incur at the end of the meal itself or you can put it on your main bill which you can pay when you leave at the end of your holiday.

There is also a bar menu in the main bar which serves pretty good pub food and if you have any late night munchies, there is a take away open until 2.30am which sells fast food. Good for those of you who are returning in the early hours from a disco or club!

You now have some time to look at questions 16 to 20.

(20 second gap)

Now listen to the rest of the orientation talk and answer questions 16 to 20.

Now lets look at some of things that you can do here during your stay with us. Of course we have our main beach which is popular with everyone. There is also an adult beach which is prohibited to anyone less than 17 years of age. This allows those of you without children to get some peace and quiet on the beach. The main beach has two lifeguards on duty from 9.00am to 6.00pm. The adult beach has no lifeguards. If you dont like sand and salt we have a decked area in front of the Harvest Restaurant with our 25 metre swimming pool. You can lie here on a sun lounger and swim in the pool with no sand to bother you. There are steps from the pool area to the beach so you can go between the two but, if youre coming up from the beach, please walk though the foot pool so that the sand gets washed off and doesnt lie around the pool area. There are also freshwater showers available on the beach and in the pool area.

As for sports we have 8 tennis courts and 3 squash courts which can be booked at any time. There is a fully equipped gym with staff on duty to help you. No-one under 18 years of age may use the gym though. We also have 6 full sized snooker tables and 5 pool tables in the games room adjoining the bar. There is no charge for use of any of these facilities though there is a small charge if you need to hire any sports gear. Again you can pay immediately or put the charges on your main bill. There are also water skiing and jet skis available but there are charges for these. Go to the water sports office for details. All the water sports such as snorkelling, inflatables and pedallos are free. Ask for all details again at the water sports office.

There is a library in the hotel which supplies books, magazines and newspapers. It has certain terms and conditions of use which you will be able to find on the notice board in the library.

We also have 2 cinemas which show 3 different films every day. The showings are in the afternoons at 2.00pm, the early evening at 5.30pm and at night at 8.30pm. The afternoon and early evening showings always have a film for kids. Children under the age of 16 are not permitted to attend the 8.30 presentations.

Well, thats all for now. Are there any questions?



(30 second gap)


Section 3. You will hear 2 students giving a presentation to a seminar group at their university. First you have some time to look at questions 21 to 26.

(20 second gap)


Dr. Reece Good morning all. Glad to see youre all on time today. This morning were going to hear Jamie and Rebecca give their presentation on some aspect of demographics. Theyve talked to me about it a bit before while researching it but I dont want to give the game away so Ill hand straight over to them

Jamie Hi everyone. As Dr. Reece said Rebecca and I are going to give our demographics presentation. Both Rebecca and I also study languages so we decided to look at the worlds different languages and the ones that are the most important, both now and in the future. Rebeccas going to start off.

Rebecca OK everyone. Who knows what the worlds most spoken language is?

Phil I thought it was English. Isnt it?

Rebecca Well, its an ambiguous question. If you just look at how many individual speakers there are around the world then the answer is Mandarin Chinese with 836 million speakers. English was second until a few years ago but it has since been overtaken by Hindi with 333 million speakers and Spanish with 332 million speakers. Now English is after Spanish with 322 million speakers.

Phil Oh yes, South America. I didnt think of that.

Jamie Yes, its easy to forget. You can look at Rebeccas question though in a different way if you look at the number of countries that use English. English is a massive 115, ahead of French, Arabic and Spanish with 35, 24 and 20 countries respectively.

Rebecca English has different statuses around the world. Core countries are where English has a full official status like England, the US and Australia. In outer core countries English has some official status as in India and then there are fringe countries such as Japan and the UAE where its used a lot in business and tourism.

Jamie A more important list is the worlds most influential languages. This was compiled by weighing 6 factors which were the number of primary speakers, the number of secondary speakers, the number and population of the countries where the languages are used, the number of major fields using the language internationally, the economic power of countries using the


languages and socio-literary prestige.

Rebecca And the list shows the following in order of most influential: English, French, Spanish, Russian, Arabic, Chinese, German, Japanese, Portuguese and Hindi.


(20 second gap)

Now listen to the rest of the presentation and answer questions 27 to 30.

Dr. Reece How up to date are these figures?

Jamie Fairly. They came out just last year. But the picture is changing very rapidly in terms of influential languages. There are certain large countries which are about to emerge on the world stage and their economies are starting to influence the world balance of power.

Rebecca The largest countries that for various reasons are beginning to shift world economic power are China, Russia, India and Brazil. The sizes of the populations along with the cheap labour and raw material prices which are available in these countries are causing this shift. As a result, every year the demand for people knowing the languages of these countries is growing enormously.

Jamie In addition the demand for teachers and English language training is also enormously increasing. Western teachers are going to the countries and their nationals are coming over here. As well as business, the education sector is getting a huge boost from the opening up of these economies.

Dr. Reece So, will China be the major powerhouse as everyone says?

Rebecca Definitely but maybe not the biggest. Many experts predict that Indias population will soon surpass Chinas. Bangladeshs population could too. It all points to world economic power being held in Asia though.

Jamie English will probably remain important though. Chinese is difficult to learn and English also has some official status in India. English is easy to learn and has the advantage, for better or worse, of being the language that everyone wants to learn. That wont change in a hurry.

Dr. Reece How many people learn English then?

Rebecca The number of spoken languages nowadays is estimated between 2500 and 7000. Out of all these languages, the numbers of those actually studied by non native speakers is tiny. There are no official records of numbers studying English worldwide but today you can safely say that there are not many countries with a structured program of education where English is not taught. It will take a long time for this habit to be broken. At the moment its getting stronger.


(30 second gap)



Section 4. You will hear part of a humanities lecture on Mad Cow Disease. First you have some time to look at questions 31 to 35.

(20 second gap)


Good morning ladies and gentlemen and welcome to this humanities lecture. Today we are going to continue our look at the modern diseases that afflict society. Today we are looking at quite a famous but rare disease. The popular name for this disease is mad cow disease. It has been so named because it is most often found in the brains of cattle. It attacks the nervous functions of the brain and leads to unusual behaviour by the cattle. Thus we familiarly say that the cow is therefore mad and hence, mad cow disease. Mad cow disease is the commonly used name but its medical title is Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy or BSE. It is a slowly progressive, degenerative, fatal disease affecting the nervous system of adult cattle. The exact form of BSE is not known but it is generally accepted by the scientific community that the likely cause is an infectious form of a type of protein known as a prion. This protein develops abnormalities and apparently seems to encourage other proteins to become similarly misshapen, affecting their ability to function. In cattle with BSE, these abnormal prions initially occur in the small intestines, tonsils, and central nervous tissues.

There is a similar disease to BSE called Creutzfeld Jacob Disease or CJD that is found in people. A variant form of CJD is believed to be caused by eating contaminated beef products from BSE affected cattle. The abnormal prions in infected cattle products are consumed by humans as they are resistant to common food disinfection treatments such as heat. The disorder is rare occurring in about 1 out of 1,000,000 people. To date there have been 155 confirmed and probable cases of CJD worldwide among the hundreds and thousands of people that may have consumed BSE contaminated beef products. Most of the cases have occurred in the UK. The one US case was in a young woman who contracted the disease while residing in the UK and developed symptoms after moving to the US.


(20 second gap)

Now listen to the rest of the lecture and answer questions 36 to 40.

CJD is a disorder involving rapid decrease of mental function and movement. As with BSE in cattle, these abnormalities are believed to be caused by damage done to the brain by prions, though it is has been proved that in rare cases it can be genetically inherited. CJD tends to affect younger people, beginning between the ages of 20 and 70, with average age at onset of symptoms in the late 50s. Early symptoms include personality changes and difficulty with coordination. Once symptoms appear, the disorder progresses rapidly and may be confused with other types of dementia such as Alzheimers Disease. CJD though is distinguished by extremely rapid progression from onset to symptoms to disability and death.


So, how did BSE and CJD come about? Weve not read about them in the history books. These appear to be new diseases. BSE was first reported in the United Kingdom. The exact origins of BSE remain uncertain, but it is thought that cattle initially may have become infected when given feed contaminated with scrapie infected sheep meat and bone meal. Scrapie is a sheep prion disease similar to BSE in cattle. The scientific evidence suggests that the UK BSE outbreak in cattle was then spread by feeding BSE contaminated cattle protein to calves. Thus, we have created the disease ourselves. Cattle naturally are grazers, feeding on grass. We have given cattle feed derived from sheep, an unnatural food for cattle. We have compounded our mistake by also feeding young cattle with feed derived from older cattle making them cannibals. There is a kind of horror associated with it when we look at it like this. There is also a kind of poetic justice that the disease is passed down to us as we consume the animals that we have infected. Moving on now, are there any questions with what I have said so far?


(30 second gap)

That is the end of listening test 8. In the IELTS test you would now have 10 minutes to transfer your answers to the listening answer sheet.


ielts listening test 8

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